Krishna Janmashtami

Our apartment was redolent with the aroma of the frying 'taler - bora' or tal (palm sap) pakora, this rain soaked afternoon.

Afterall it is Krishna Janmashtami!

As much as both the rains and taler bora are traditional Janmashatmi events, so is distributing boxes of the afore mentioned tal er bora to friends and family! Thankgod. It is quite difficult to stop eating them ...

Durga Puja 2012 in Kolkata

Another Durga Puja came and whizzed past. So many pandals with ever new themes, fabulous lighting, huge crowds, miraculous crowd management by Kolkata Police, sounds of dhakis, anjali prayers from so many pandals dotting the city ...

The dome of the Maddox Square Puja Pandal shining through the trees 

But for me, the memory which will stay with me for the longest time, till the pujas next year, has to be the lights dotting the neighbourhood park, glistening through the trees and tinting the frosted panes of my bedroom window

Kolkata Fish Fry

Is there ever anything better than a Kolkata fish fry? Well there isn't actually anything called a Kolkata Fish Fry. It's actually plain Fish Fry. But it has to be made in Kolkata. And not just in any restaurant or hotel. No matter how great or how many world famous chef it has!

It will be tucked away inconspicuously . This one is very prosaically named "Cafe"!

in one of those old Raj Relic buildings

Will have high ceilings and iron rafters

a fan at the end of a very long rod

With impossibly narrow alcoves into which fit rickety wooden chairs and lovers / adda-bajs hunch over a shared plate of any of the very small but unchanging menu, which taste exactly the same year after year ... and all of it delicious

How does one describe it? Well "Anadi Cabin" type will do for most Bengali's. I almost expected Byomkesh Bakshi to come tripping into this one, while I waited for my order of 6 fish fries and 5 fish chop (they only had 5)!

Mmmm....somethings should NEVER change! And guess what? Byomkesh IS arriving tomorrow to Kolkata. Abar!

Its a beautiful world, indeed

West Bengal Hasta Shilpa Mela (Handicraft Fair) - artists and their art from all over West Bengal - the infinite variety, the sheer artistry and skill on display. Mind boggling.

Brass work

Talk Bangla Talk

When I returned to Kolkata in 2008, one of the things I loved the most was the luxury of speaking and being completely understood and responded to, in bengali.....This is kolkata, after all.

For quite some time after that, it would take me by surprise and I’d feel a childish elation each time, I spoke to a taxi driver, a passer by, in the bank, at the movie hall in bengali....what fun. (Except Inox Forum where everyone stubbornly sticks to English...).

This was almost like the fun and the thrill that even the smallest of conversations in french would bring to me, when I was in France! Except its been three years that I am back and yet, cabbies, bus conductors, auto drivers, shop assistants will speak to me in Hindi. Even if I reply in Bengali, they will try out their best hindi on me!

Belated Durga Puja Post

The Durga Pujas.That Annual break for all in West Bengal (and elsewhere too wherever there are Bengalis, worldwide)!

four days of no deadlines, no work pressure, total standstill. And what a pleasure it is, year after year.

However, this Durga puja, I did not visit a single pandal, not even my para pujo – Maddox Square. Did not venture out for pandal hopping in the wee hours of the morning or late at night or at any other time. In fact, did not feel the slightest pang on missing out on Singhi Park, Tridhara Sammelani, Chaltabaga, Mohammad Ali Park… Nothing!

Does that mean I did not enjoy the pujos? Ofcourse not. I did. But in a different way.

Met up with pals for a long over due no holds barred Adda seesions but spaced out properly – one per day. The rest of the day was spent lazing at home – family lunch – something rarely done since I am always at work or on tour; post lunch siesta, half asleep with the anandamela puja barshiki, watching a rerun of a feluda (Kakababu was an added bonus).

Both maids were on leave so rolling out rotis with ma, catching the matinee show of the puja release Baishe Shrabon at Priya and being pleasantly surprised at its watchability; strolling on the chhad in the evenings watching the lights of the various pandals casting a grayish hue to the night sky. Cell phone being jammed with subho bijoya messages!

Ah! Abaar Ashche bochor! And with it perhaps another new way of enjoying the pujas?!

Waiting for Ma Kali

Passed this kumhar busy at work shaping the Kali pratima near kalighat.

Rakhi in the rain

There we were, in a bus, stuck the kalighat crossing, in pouring rain. On the right hand side, at the mouth of the famous lane - a rakhi festival was on in full swing. Oof the Bhai chara, armed with rakhis and umbrellas!

Blissful in Puri

This time in Puri a miracle happened! My meetings (usually endless & draining) actually ended at 5pm. The weather was on the verge of cool. Winter gone, summer approaching and so perfect for a stroll down the really wide Grand Road upto the Puri temple ... something I haven't been bothered to do or find time for, in earlier visits.

After a certain point on Grand road cars are not allowed. This is more than made up for by million cycles, motorbikes and scooters who drive around to some pre-programmed manic circuit. Cows lolled in the middle of the road, oblivious, chewing cud while the bulls stood immobile, impassive, as if they owned the world, which they quite possibly did. Those mad cyclists and bikers might run over an unsuspecting passer by, but never a cow or bull!

I savoured the cool air stopping occasionally at a road side stalls, often no more than wares spread on a plastic sheet selling local knick knacks or religious parapharnelia, to look at the wares

women rolling out endless cotton wicks for votive diyas at the temple

or take a photo, or admire an old building which suddenly would appear from among the usual ugly decrepit ones...

or asking a policeman to shoo away a calf trying to eat the leather seat of parked bike or help out a gujrati to explain that batata was aloo and sweet potato was Kandamul in Oriya (With the help of my Oriya colleague ofcourse)!

the famed chena pora of Puri

The man in bright orange reading (ramayan I imagine) adjusted his specs to pose for my photo

Mandirar Prasado, said the man pulling a van laden with earthern pots of khichdi, steaming rice and their aroma wafting...

I would often stop, savour the scenn around me....and don't quite know why, feel very happy. There I was among a million - none of whom I knew, but I felt not lonely at all! As the day faded into dusk and then into night, the wide Grant Road became, if possible, even more magical.

The crowds swelled all along the road right upto the the Singhadooar where the crowd at any time is impossible. Impossibly crowded that is.

Puri Temple Front

People from all over India and abroad .... all milling around with vendors, a few locals, police men.

We chatted with our usual chai wallah who told us about another owner who was making Rs. 10,000 per day and had three houses and yet lived in a rented accomodation of 500/-!!

As the night set in marriage parties joined in. We counted 4 of them. The procession of two parties had a brief clash - both sets of brass bands playing loudly made unique cacophony and the women (yes all of them) carrying the obligatory ornate lamps alongside the groom's bedecked car, got their wires entangled (which are wired to a generator on usually the last van in the procession) - after which, one got the right of way while the other patiently waited. Soon two more queued up with entire regalia behind this one. Sundry people stopped to watch the marriage parties file past. As I stopped to take a photo (at the absurdity) a groom obligingly popped his head out of the car - the photo alas was too dark.

Here was Lord Jagannath's lila in full swing. Pilgrims from all parts of India and infact the world, vendors, policemen, bikers and cyclist, cows and bulls, marriage party and police station ... every one on their own trip but somehow all united in some cosmic dance to an unheard beat. All swirling around the looming Puri temple of Lord Jagganath infusing everything and everyone with this otherworldly bliss.